After being grossly outplayed by and ultimately losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, the Ottawa Senators are back in action tomorrow for their home opener against the New York Rangers. The Rangers, who are coming off a 6-4 victory over the Winnipeg Jets, provide a blue print of sorts for the Senators when it comes to rebuilding. This is a team that turned its experienced players into picks, and has supplemented those picks with targeted acquisitions in other areas. That strategy has allowed the Rangers to nearly complete their rebuild in relatively short order, without sacrificing quality.
Here are a few things to watch for tomorrow: Updated forward lines Drake Batherson had a historically bad game on Wednesday night. His metrics were so below the line of acceptability that the coach had no choice but to shake things up at practice yesterday:
As expected, a couple of little wrinkles for the Sens forward combos today:
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) October 3, 2019
Tkachuk - White - Ryan
Duclair - Pageau - C. Brown
Ennis - Tierney - Sabourin
Boedker - Anisimov - Chlapik
Batherson appears to be extra forward at this skate.
Will Zaitsev and Hainsey settle in? The Toronto Maple Leafs are quick, which makes them a particularly tough opponent for players like Nikita Zaitsev and Ron Hainsey to handle. Their results on Wednesday are evidence of that:
The Sens have been outshot 35-18 with Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev on the ice at 5-on-5 tonight. That’s 34%.
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) October 3, 2019
Against a New York team that perhaps doesn’t have the same speed and firepower as the Leafs (who does, really?), it will be interesting to see if Zaitsev and Hainsey can settle down into a more comfortable and fire-drill-free role.
“Fan engagement… The Senators have announced a number of great initiatives for the home opener, including the traditional Red Carpet event for fans to interact with players. Home openers are a lot of fun, so take the opportunity to be there if you’re able to do so:
News Release: #Sens announce fan engagement details ahead of Saturday's 2019-20 home opener @CdnTireCtr: https://t.co/IASWpvopVi
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 3, 2019
It's still way too early in the season to draw conclusions about what we might see from either opponent based on past performance. Either way, there should be a great atmosphere at the Canadian Tire Centre, and the team should be hungry to bounce back from a disappointing performance against the Leafs.
Before signing off, I wanted to send out a quick congratulatory message to Erik and Melinda Karlsson, who announced the birth of their new baby daughter last night. Wonderful news!
As always, thanks for reading.